Simulated brain Spaun recognises, learns and remembers

Spaun stands for Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network
and it's the creation of theoretical neuroscientist Chris
Eliasmith at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

It's not like other artificial brains that have been created in
the past, like IBM's Watson or the Blue Brain project. Those were
focused on mimicking the brain's structure and connectivity -- its
connectome. Spaun does that, but is also designed to replicate
neural behaviour too.

It's divided into two parts - loosely based on the cerebral
cortex and basal ganglia. 2.5 million simulated neurons make up
these parts, as well as a virtual eye and a real-life robotic arm.
Based on the visual information it receives, it can route data to
different parts of the cortex that are best suited to the task at
hand.

It works, to an extent. The model can recognise numbers,
remember them, process sequences and write them down with the
robotic arm. However, it lacks the adaptive capabilities of a human
brain - it can't tell if it's doing a good or bad job, for
example.

However Eliasmith told Popsci in an interview that he's working on that.
"Eventually it would discover its own strategy for accomplishing
its own task."